May 2014 marked for a tectonic shift in Indian democracy. A Luteyn outsider made deep inroads into corridors of power and brought along those who weren’t ready to dance on tunes of the so called intellectual brigade.
Decade long venomous spewing of lies and fabricated malice had failed those who previously wielded power and authority to decide ministerial birth in central cabinet. Nexus of politician, journalist and industrialist wasn’t working anymore. It was a period of existential crisis for a large group of veiled lobbyist as their access to north and south block was curtailed and denied.
These wolves in sheepskin waited with bated breath for their government to fail. Each and every step of Narendra Modi government was heavily scrutinized. Nevertheless, scams weren’t happening, relatives of cabinet ministers weren’t being offered huge chunk of lands for pennies, no community or ethnicity was being hatefully targeted, riots weren’t breaking up and this all led to a piled up frustration among a mass of journalists and intellectuals. They waited long for something bad to happen but were practically denied any chance. Patience wasn’t helping them!
Indeed desperate times call for desperate moves. Came 2015 and a killing took place in a small village near Delhi. It later became to be popularly known as ‘Dadri Mob Lynching’. Prominent journalists across all news channels dropped anything and everything they were doing and made a beeline for this small village in Gautam Buddha Nagar district. Emotional ground reports were made, disturbing interviews were broadcasted and documentaries threatening communal peace were created. Soon after India was declared Intolerant.
Thanks to these self-declared flag bearers of Indian ethos this incident witnessed no scope of alternative narratives or patient investigation. Because some individual or a group of individuals gathered and killed a helpless old man in a cowardly, unfortunate incident, the majority of Indian population was painted communal and intolerant.
Conclusion was derived, culprits were marked and judgements were declared from TV studios even before police could file complete charge sheet of this case in the court.
Making most out of this opportunity, a large gang of rewarded sycophants joined in the brigade of leading journalists and started an unprecedented movement of returning rewards. Also known as ‘Award Wapsi’, this movement was more of a payback for years of recognition given to them by their erstwhile political masters.
However in complete turn of events, later on in June, 2016 an FIR was registered against Muhammad Ikhlaq and his kin on court orders under section 156(3) for cow slaughter. In state of Uttar Pradesh this crime is a non-bailable offence and can result up to seven years of imprisonment.
Four months after Dadri incident a man committed suicide in Hyderabad University.
Miscreants of popular media gave it a completely different angle and started milking this regrettable incident to the best of their abilities. This Rohith Vemula suicide incident was blown out of proportion and a completely out of context picture of Dalit oppression was painted out of it.
These moral conscience deficient individuals didn’t even notice the drastic effect of glorifying a suicide.
Pre-conceived notions coupled with toxic agenda derived the over hyped narrative build around Rohith Vemula’s death.
Now that Rohith Vemula’s identity of being a Dalit has been proved false it must be investigated whether who were those people who manufactured and propagated this lie to keep their TRP’s soaring. A brazen attempt to make Dalits feel unsafe and oppressed was made by a large segment of media, all of whom today stand exposed.
However both of these overstated and incorrectly reported incidents present a very unsavory picture of Indian mainstream media. Has thirst of TRP and personal vendetta completely overridden the ethical code of this noble profession?
Shouldn’t action be taken upon those who have attempted to incite communal violence and tried to deepen caste divide under the disguise of factual reporting?
Don’t such hypothetical narratives make for a punishable offence under obstruction of justice with intent of misleading the investigation?
It is high time to reconstruct the eroding fourth pillar of democracy. A particular squad of holier-than-thou, so called media persons should listen to their inner calling and renounce journalism for a more suitable profession of fiction writing.